I’m going to teach you how to cook a steak that will impress your friends, neighbors and even yourself, but will also completely insult grill enthusiasts. That’s why I call it the blasphemy steak — it goes against everything you’ve learned about steaks if you’ve grown up cooking them in the south.

First, let’s lay some groundwork. We’re cooking this steak medium-rare, because to do anything else would be an insult to the bovine who gave his or her life for this meal. If you come to my house and ask for a well-done, medium or medium-well steak, I will cook you a medium-rare steak anyway.

Someone may have once told you that you should never put salt on a steak because it pulls all the juices out of the meat. That person was wrong. Got it? Good.

You will need:

• cast-iron skillet

• conventional oven

• tongs

• butter

• garlic cloves

• kosher salt

• fresh-cracked black pepper

• thyme

• electric thermometer

First thing is selecting your cut. I like a good ribeye or a New York strip, but this is a matter of preference. Stay away from meat packages with verbiage like “Select” or anything frozen or vacuum-sealed. You want cuts marked “Choice” or “Prime,” but good luck finding or affording “Prime.” For best results, visit your local butcher. If in doubt, ask him which cut he would select for himself.

Now you’ve got your cuts home, go ahead and take them out of the package. You’re going to put kosher salt and fresh-cracked black pepper on these babies. Be liberal. Use more salt than you think you need. Do it to both sides and place the cuts on a baking sheet.

Meanwhile, bring your oven up to about 200 degrees.

Here’s where we get weird. I know, most of you would be firing up the grill right now, letting the steaks come to room temperature and letting the fire get hot, but it is extremely hard to control the cooking experience inside a grill. I told you this was steak blasphemy.

Once your oven is at 200 degrees, you’re going to stick the steak in. Let it cook for roughly 20 minutes, or until it reads 110 or 120 degrees when you insert a meat thermometer. Bring them out of the oven and transfer to a very hot cast-iron skillet. You’ll know the skillet is hot enough if a sprinkling of water dances across the surface. Put a small amount of olive oil in the pan if you like.

Stick your steak in, listen to the satisfying sizzle and try not to move it too much. I’d say two or three minutes on each side, but there’s one extra flare before you flip the steak for the first time. Take your garlic cloves and crush them with the flat side of a knife. Put them into the pain. Don’t worry about the skins. Next, add two pads of butter to the skillet and a generous amount of thyme. Flip the steak and as the butter melts, use a spoon to drizzle the melted mixture across the top of the meat. Then, pick up the steak in your tongs and gently cook around the edges. Transfer to a plate, wrap in tin-foil and let rest for 5-7 minutes. If you’ve done it right, you’ll have an out-of-this world steak on your plate and you will consider writing to me in thanks.

My email is sports@couriernews.com. You’re welcome.

Note: Some people drizzle the remaining butter mixture over the steak before wrapping it in tinfoil.